Originally posted by: bamacre
Originally posted by: dclive
Why's that? I'm far happier with my Acer Quad6600 than I am with a Gigabyte 965-C2D 2.13@3.2 that I put together, so perhaps you can share with the crowd why anyone should be happier one way or another?
PS: Still waiting for details on how you'd put together a machine, cheaper than the Dell @ $649, with legal Vista Home Premium & 22" Dell monitor, with all the stuff I listed previously.... since you lost that one you seemed to have jumped to this 'happiness' argument, which I suppose is far easier to argue since it's entirely subjective.
The system config'd at 649 is a decent deal, you can have that. But where they hit you is the upgrades, and that is exactly where the OP got hit, and pretty hard too.
I have probably ordered roughly 650 Dell systems in the past 3 years. And what I can tell you with certainty is that buying from them retail, even with coupon codes, is almost never the best deal you can get.
What you don't know is that the OP and I had a little conversation via PM's before he posted this thread. I won't go into the details however.
Just as an example of what one could do with a Dell, this is what I could plan on doing. This is a system I picked up from Dell Outlet....
XPS 410 Mini-Tower
Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E6320 (1.86GHz, 1066 FSB)
256MB nVidia Geforce 7300LE TurboCache
2GB DDR2 Non-ECC SDRAM 677MHz (2 DIMMs)
80GB SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
48X CDRW/DVD Combo Drive
USB 2 Button Mouse
USB Keyboard
After shipping and tax, that came to 468.65.
I will sell off the following...
E6320 (-$120)
Geforce 7300LE (-$25)
80GB SATA (-$20)
That brings my cost down to $303.65.
I'll be adding...
Q6600 ($280)
8800 GTX ($500)
500GB Seagate ($105)
DVDRW ($35)
Total cost: $1223.65.
Of course, I haven't actually decided on exactly what I will be doing. I'm going to wait for another video card refresh, and actual Crysis benchmarks before I make any moves.
Now, let's take the same system and add the OP's config...
XPS 410 Mini-Tower
Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E6320 (1.86GHz, 1066 FSB)
256MB nVidia Geforce 7300LE TurboCache
2GB DDR2 Non-ECC SDRAM 677MHz (2 DIMMs)
80GB SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
48X CDRW/DVD Combo Drive
USB 2 Button Mouse
USB Keyboard
Still at 468.65.
He could sell off the following...
Geforce 7300LE (-$25)
80GB SATA (-$20)
That brings his cost down to $423.65
He could add the following...
8600 GTS ($158)
320GB Seagate ($80)
DVDRW ($35)
Acer 19in Digital LCD ($173)
Total cost: $869.65
He could have saved about $300. Or just got an 8800 GTS instead of the 8600 GTS, and still had some money left over for his Media Card Reader.